Phenol Removal from Aqueous Environment by Adsorption onto Pomegranate Peel Carbon

INTRODUCTION Phenol and its derivatives are the most common poisonous compounds which are stable in aqueous media and lead to many health issues. In this study, application of the carbon resulted from pomegranate peel is investigated in removal of phenol by adsorption method. METHODS to perform this cross-sectional study, first, samples of phenol with concentrations of 10 to 100 mg/L were prepared for six months in 2016. Then, the impacts of parameters such as pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time, and initial concentration of phenol in adsorption process were investigated independently in Gonabad Chemistry Lab using a spectrophotometer at 505 nm as the wavelength. Furthermore, adherence of the samples to the isotherm models of Langmuir and Freundlich was determined by Excel 2016 and descriptive statistical methods were then reported. RESULTS The obtained results demonstrated a maximum adsorption capacity (ash) of 148.38 mgg-1 at pH 7, initial concentration of 100 mg L-1, and temperature of 23 ± 2 °C. The phenol removal rate was found to correlate directly to the adsorbent dosage and contact time, and inversely to the initial concentration of phenol. In addition, the investigations showed that the adsorption of phenol on the pomegranate peel ash follows the Freundlich model well with a correlation coefficient of R2 0.9056. CONCLUSION Pomegranate peel ash could be used as an efficient and low-cost adsorbent for phenol removal from aqueous media.